I am very excited to share the following story with you. This is the race report, and transformation of Brad Williams, a multisport athlete who hasn't even scratched the surface of his potential yet, using Crossfit Endurance to help him realize the true athlete within. I hope you find it as inspirational as I did.
Stay strong,
Guy
LSD-to-CFE
I’m Brad Williams, a physical education teacher and age group (30-34) triathlete from Canton, MI. I’ve been on the Crossfit Endurance program for close to 5 years and have seen positive results from the program. A standard CFE week consists of 2 Swims WODS (workout of day), 2 Bike WODS, and 2 Run WODS. One WOD is a long interval or short interval and the second is either the opposite interval of the first or a tempo/TT (Time Trial) WOD. You also have strength & conditioning WODS programed in too. The first part of the WOD is muscle endurance (strength based) or dynamic endurance (lifting liter weights faster). The second part is a circuit training WOD that can have just about any combo of exercises you can name of throw in. CFE mainly focuses on skill, then intensity, and finally duration.
I started endurance sports in 2002. One of the Spinning instructors at my gym asked me to be on her mountain bike race team and I said “yes” and that is when I was hooked. From 2002-2003 I raced solely mountain bikes and training traditional LSD (long slow distance) programs. I experienced great results placing in Top 10 in my age group in most of my races. In 2004 I started in triathlon and continued on LSD programs. I competed in Olympic distance events (1500m swim, 40k bike, and a 10k run). I was still seeing great results. My bests being a 5 hour 9 min. 70.3 at the 2006 Steelhead Triathlon in St. Joseph, MI, a 3rd place age group finish at the 2005 Iceman Cometh Mountain Bike race in Traverse City, MI, and finally age group victory at the 2005 CRIM Festival of Races 8k run in Flint, MI. Around 2008 I started plateauing. I was still competitive, not seeing the results I would like, and not improving. That is when I knew I had to change something.
In 2009, I dabbled on the Crossfit site some because I was intrigued by the unlimited combinations of workouts. I then came on to the Crossfit Endurance website and after I did one race in June I decided to do the rest of my races that year (2009) training under the CFE program and I haven’t looked back since. I was amazed at the improvements I made after one race. I was training harder, recovering faster, getting stronger, and not getting mentally tired. I stuck to the program pretty closely, but sometimes couldn’t break the workouts up (1 AM/1 PM) so I did them back-to-back. That really didn’t matter anyways because I had to do “brick” workouts for triathlons and lifting hard and fast before or after a run or swim didn’t bother me. The only other part of the training I altered was getting in a long run and ride on the weekends for the endurance portion. With CFE I was able to race more too. Some highlights were: Age Group 2nd Place Points in 2009 for the T-Rex Triathlon Series in Brighton, MI. In 2010, 2nd Place Tri for Life Sprint Tri in Otter Lake, MI, 2011 1st Place Age Group in the MCVi Run for your Heart Half Marathon, 3rd Place Men’s Open in the 2012 Lifetime Fitness Alpha Games Regional. My biggest gains came in 2013. I got back into Olympic triathlon racing (placing top 3 in two races) and made the Michigan Titanium 70.3 in Grand Rapids my key race. I modified the CFE program some to get in longer workouts, but kept the high intensity pace of CFE. I also focused more on muscle endurance WODS rather than circuits because heavier lifting would build me up from long hard swims, bikes, and runs. An example WOD I did was 2 x 20 mile Hill TT/15 min. recovery or 3 x 45 min TT bike w/1.5 mile runs. I did workouts similar to this all Winter, Spring, and Summer. I placed 7th out of 18 in my age group at the Michigan Titanium 70.3 with a 5:46:29 time. The whole race was hot (87 degrees), hilly, and windy, but the mentally toughness I gained got me though the race.
As you can see CFE can help you reach your goals for any event at any distance. You can modify it for your needs to achieve your goals as long as you keep the hard, intense principals with it. I would highly recommend using CFE for your endurance training. I’m a prime example of you can do with it.
